I wasn’t planning to write about this. When I travel, I tend to outline what I feel my articles will be. So when my Sicily tour scheduled a morning to visit a Roman villa, I thought, ‘I’ve seen Roman villas before. This won’t be exciting enough to write about. I’ll focus on Greek and Phoenician ruins from the prior days.’ Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Villa Romana del Casale is truly spectacular. It boasts roughly 36,000 square feet of interior space, the overwhelming majority of which is covered by varied, beautiful, and intricate mosaic on the floors. Walkways take visitors above these, allowing for overhead views while protecting the flooring below. It is, in fact, so incredibly well preserved that the site is part of UNESCO’s World Heritage just for the mosaics. After all, we know so little else about the villa.

Rome conquered Sicily from Carthage over the course of the first two Punic Wars, first in 241 BCE and then in 212 BCE. From its incorporation as a Roman province, Sicily was of the utmost importance to the Republic (and then the Empire) as a major source of grain for the capital. Though Egypt would be the largest provider of food for the Empire from its conquest in 30 BCE, after the moving of the imperial capital to Constantinople and the diversion of Egyptian resources there, Sicily would be the breadbasket of Rome itself, and the western half of the Empire. It is from this later period that Villa Romana del Casale dates.

We don’t know who built the villa. We do know that whoever did so must have been incredibly important and/or wealthy. It dates to the early fourth century CE, so well after Constantinople usurped Rome as the most important imperial city. The villa was equipped with its own set of baths, large banquet facilities, a master’s suite (along with what are thought to be children’s rooms), and two small guest suites. It is the small number of guest suites that lead archaeologists to believe this was a seasonal vacation home rather than a full time residence.

Villa Romana del Casale was mainly buried, only to be uncovered in the twentieth century. Its long burial allowed its stunning mosaic to be largely intact, although restoration has helped with some of the color. Some wall frescoes are also still visible in some rooms. Most exterior walls and ceilings were gone, but the site has added those for weather protection, and done so in a way that is thought to represent what the villa would have actually looked like. (Some of this is, of course, conjecture based on other similar period villas.)

The buildings are cool, but visitors come to this spot in rural Sicily for the mosaics. Several themes run through the villa, and I’ll explore those here.

First, there are the “basic” mosaics of geometric patterns. (As you’ll see from photos, there is little basic about them, but in comparison to others, they are a bit more simplistic.) Rooms with these tended to be working rooms, things like servant’s areas, kitchens, or storage rooms.

Even in these less public areas, I believe that no pattern was repeated, although I’d have to look at photos side by side to be certain.

Second, there are mosaics that seem to indicate room functionality. A perfect example of that is what is thought to be children’s rooms, complete with mosaic of children imitating adult activities, like driving a chariot pulled by ducks.

Another iconic utilitarian mosaic comes from what might have been an exercise room, with “bikini” girls. These are actually contemporary Roman athletic garb for women, and the athletes shown hold various exercise equipment.

Finally, there are the scenes. Some are mythological, but more depict animals, representative of Sicily’s role as the major trading point between Rome and Africa during this period of the late Empire. The front halls are decorated with mosaics of animal heads, and the variety is dizzying.

Further in, one reaches the hall of the great hunt, where large game (like elephants and tigers) are pictured. As with the geometric patterns, I don’t recall a single image repeated, despite this large corridor stretching the entire width of the villa.

Banquet halls seem to be decorated with more mythological scenes, with Hercules an always popular figure, although other stories are present as well.

The scope of these mosaics is breathtaking. Photos can’t do them justice, though I can try to show the variety at least.

A visit to Villa Romana del Casale only takes an hour or two at most, but what a time! I’ve been lucky enough to see some spectacular mosaic in various places, but this puts the rest to shame. It is absolutely worth the hour and a half or so drive from Catania if you are able to see it for yourself.

Like it? Pin it!